Yesterday and today, I had the privilege of interviewing Judith Todd, a remarkable woman who has spent more than six decades challenging political injustice in Zimbabwe. She rejected white minority rule, joined the nationalist movement and became a member of ZAPU in the 1960s. In 1964, she was convicted for leading a student protest against the banning of the African Daily News. She later studied journalism at Columbia University and wrote two books challenging Ian Smith’s regime, both banned in Rhodesia.
In 1972, Smith’s government detained her and her father without charge. After independence, she returned to Zimbabwe, helped rehabilitate former liberation fighters, stood as a ZAPU parliamentary candidate and served on the Zimpapers board. She later became a founding shareholder of the Daily News in 1998. In 2003, she was stripped of her Zimbabwean citizenship but won the case.
Two fascinating days recording the life of a woman who has not only witnessed Zimbabwe’s history but helped shape it